The Charging Indians’ Mark Vital reaches for the dunk against Opelousas Tuesday night at Washington-Marion. Vital scored 26 points and grabbed 17 rebounds to help W-M take sole possession of first place in district. (Rick Hickman / American Press)

Vital leads Washington-Marion past Opelousas

Washington-Marion forward Mark Vital added a few more entries to his YouTube dunk highlight reels, but his less spectacular
work on the boards proved to be the difference in W-M’s 88-73 win over Opelousas.

The win Tuesday night gave the fifth-ranked Charging Indians sole possession in the District 5-4A race.

Opelousas (15-6, 1-1) had been the only other undefeated team in district play. The Tigers gave W-M problems for most of the
first three quarters, but W-M exploded for 28 points in the fourth quarter to pull away.

Vital led W-M (16-5, 3-0) with 26 points and 17 rebounds. In the first half, he had 19 points, eight rebounds and nine second-chance points. W-M scored 27 second-chance points.

Jeremiah Warren scored 10 of his 18 points in the fourth quarter as W-M stretched a seven-point lead early in the quarter
to as many as 18. Dionte Dixon scored nine of his 12 points in the final quarter.

Vital had five points, three rebounds and an assist in the quarter.

“His game is going to develop as the
year goes,” said W-M head coach Albert Hartwell of Vital. “He plays team
ball. He likes
to dunk, but he plays for the team. He is not getting the charging
fouls anymore; he is taking the short jumper, he is seeing
the floor better, moving better and can play several positions
because he has basketball sense.”

The Tigers had a skywalker of their own in Da’quan Bellard, who threw down a pair of dunks en route to a team-high 23 points.

“That kid can jump out the gym,” Hartwell said. “He kept his motor going. They played hard. We hit the boards hard on the
offensive end and did not give up as many second-chance shots as usual. We fouled too much in the first three quarters and they
stayed close.

“In the fourth quarter we changed the defense a little, got more aggressive and just asserted ourselves a little big more.
We started looking for the open pass more, found the weak-side pass and got some easy layups, then didn’t miss free throws
like we have in the past. It was a big win, this week is very big in going towards where we want to go.”